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Perdue Wants Test Cheating Probe

Susanna Capelouto

Governor Perdue will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate cheating allegations in two Georgia school Systems. The move comes after Atlanta Public Schools and Dougherty County Schools did not submit satisfactory investigations to the state.

State officials say Atlanta Public schools did not do a thorough enough job of looking at 58 schools that were flagged by the state as having too many erasures on standardized tests.

The Atlanta system commissioned an investigation that only identified 12 schools as needing further scrutiny. The state says that’s not enough and Governor Perdue wants to intervene.

"On this basis I’m appointing a special investigator to do the hard work that has to be done for the children in the Atlanta schools system and the Dougherty county school system," Perdue told the State Board of Education Wednesday.

Dougherty county schools, officials say tried to explain away the possibility of cheating rather than investigate it thoroughly. Perdue says the special investigator will have subpoena powers and will be named, soon.